Van de Putte concerned over potential special session scope; Ogden says there’s a risk education funding could be cut

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, head of the Senate Democratic Caucus, didn’t give a yes or no when asked if she may vote with Republicans to resurrect a school funding bill and avoid a special session that could be packed with issues Democrats don’t like.

Senate leaders need a 4/5 vote, or 25 of the 31 senators, to make such a move. There are 12 Democrats in the Senate.

“We don’t know what the parameters are going to be for tomorrow” if Gov. Rick Perry calls a special session, said Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. “We don’t know if it’s just an education bill … He has said it would be sanctuary cities. I’ve heard it, sanctuary cities, plus the other egregious pieces of legislation on immigration issues. I’ve heard that he might veto the Senate redistricting plan.

“I’m not able to put anything in a decision-making framework yet because I don’t know all the variables yet,” she said.

Van de Putte said she believed lawmakers would learn the shape of the special –session agenda and “at that point, the senators will make their own appropriate decisions.”

She said she voted on Sunday for a resolution allowing changes made in the bill by negotiators to be ratified because her concerns over military school districts had been met. Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibustered the bill after that resolution was passed.

Van de Putte said that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, already has indicated the chamber in a special session won’t use the two-thirds rule that empowers outnumbered Democrats by requiring that margin to bring up legislation. That would mean Republicans could pass “every measure” with a majority vote, she said.

“That means that every successful thing that Senate Democrats were able to effectively block this year — the really dismantling of teachers’ job protections and contract issues, we were able to block. Sanctuary cities and anything that was egregious on immigration, we were able to block,” Van de Putte said. “Without that, there is no protection.”

Perry already has indicated that he’ll call a special session this summer on windstorm insurance, lawmakers have said, and he could add other issues at any time. He would control the agenda of any special session.

Van de Putte said school districts are on a tight time line because they must get their budgets worked out and take public comment on them. She said “the real question” is whether educators and families would converge on the Capitol in a special session to force changes in the school funding plan, which would cut $4 billion from what school districts would otherwise receive under current formulas.

“It’s not about the Legislature right now. It’s about teachers and parents and the community … Are they going to use this opportunity to come to the Capitol and demand that we not cut public schools by $4 billion?” she asked.

“Right now, I think the onus is back on the people of the state of Texas. Are you going to demand that your legislators go back and put money into the school system?”

— Photo by, Nolan Hicks

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, was plain-spoken in his response to this idea.

“That would be fine, except there isn’t any money to add,” he said. “People can be upset, but we have in one way or another committed all of the resources that are available.”

He said the remaining balance in the rainy day fund has been committed – a big part of it because the budget would hugely under-fund Medicaid and will have to make up the cost in 2013 – and there’s no chance that leaders’ stance against new taxes or eliminating tax exemptions will change in the next month or two.

Ogden said there’s a “real” risk that funding could be reduced to public schools in a special session, even though he said he doesn’t want that to happen.

“There’s a lot of conservative criticism about that deferral, for example,” Ogden said. The spending plan would free up about $2.3 billion by slightly pushing back the last state payment to school districts in the upcoming fiscal period, moving it into the following fiscal period.

“There will be people for various reasons who’ll want to re-open a lot of these issues. So I hope senators will conclude that under the circumstances, this is the best deal we can cut, so we ought to vote for it,” Ogden said.

Ogden said it’s assumed there will not be a two-thirds rule in the special session, when any number of things could be on the agenda.

“If I was the governor, I would I would basically try to take advantage of the fact there’s not going to be” a two-thirds vote requirement, he said.